The Joy of Becoming

Beirut Art Center in Jisr el Wati, Beirut, will present The Joy of Becoming, a solo exhibition by Mohamad Kanaan, from 12 November 2026 to 12 February 2027. The opening is on Thursday 12 November at 6pm. Kanaan was born in Beirut in 1989 and first studied architecture. The exhibition will combine sculpture, drawings, textiles and built structures with moving image, sound and performance. Its source is a book of marvels written in the thirteenth century by the cosmographer Zakariyya al-Qazwīnī.

Kanaan has studied that book, ʿAjāʾib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharāʾib al-mawjūdāt, over several years. From it he draws a population of figures, creatures and structures that divide, fuse, multiply and change shape. Within this world the edges between people and creatures, and between a body and its setting, grow unclear. Children took part in the work, alongside the artist's own research and making, and play is part of the method. The centre presents it as a world still in progress, one that keeps changing after the opening.

Beirut Art Center ties the project to experiences of return, uncertainty and rupture. It describes joy here as something that can grow out of fear and grief rather than replace them. Performances, workshops and group gatherings are planned for the length of the run. The poster gives the title in both Arabic and English. In November 2025 Kanaan spoke at the centre with the scholar Tarek El-Ariss about his readings of medieval Arabic manuscripts.

Architecture and furniture run through his earlier work. His Mirror Series of 2015 is a set of three wooden chairs fitted with mirrored glass, each paired with a poem. Let's Talk About Red, an installation of soil, plants, wood and speakers, was shown at Beirut Art Residency in 2017. Eye, Sea and Dance (2021) is a group of seven sculptures in steel, concrete and marble. He graduated in architecture in 2012 from the American University of Beirut, then took an MFA in 2016 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition will be open from Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 7pm, and on Saturday, 11am to 5pm.